Obama, Mideast's Onetime Savior, Now More a Pariah

When Barack Obama entered office, he was seen as the fresh new hope for peace in the Middle East—but now, he’s seen as a part of the problem, Politico interviews with Israelis and Palestinians suggest. After Obama finally got Israel to temporarily freeze West Bank settlement-building, there’s talk of resuming; Palestine, for its part, has refused peace talks with Israel despite US urging.

The leaders involved in the conflict have each “exacerbated the mistakes of the other,” says an adviser to Israel’s prime minister. This, he says, could be “disastrous: people will lose hope in the possibility of a two-state solution.” The US worries that Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas lacks a real drive for peace, while Benjamin Netanyahu seems simply to be “running out the clock,” as one official put it.
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